Through, Around, and Everywhere

Fear is the invisible hand

Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash

It’s everywhere, on news and in discourse, it travels ahead of me and follows

just behind, it grits teeth and clenches fists, grips shovels and makes men work and stops

them from going where they were intended. It drives past a sign that reads

the number of vehicle deaths this year, it is large and everywhere. It goes to war in hundreds and comes

home in thousands. It is light, refracting and amplifying, and darkness clouding vision. It’s love

for men and separation from them, kindness and untowardness, it shoos

flies and levels the spider, beheads the snake and flees the shadow.

It makes oceans of puddles, weighs heavy in rucksacks, and shoots

before it asks questions. It announces skin color and ushers Jews on trains and breaks

storefront windows. The fear that stops men is the same fear that makes men, and

I haven’t felt it in a long time.

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Hey, I’m Roman. I’m working on my debut novel, 20xx, a work in magical realism. I write on Substack.